Social and emotional development in the changing society

Social and emotional development in the changing society is an important topic that has received increased attention in recent years from researchers, professionals, and the public in the world. Research on children and adolescents’ social and emotional development has pervasive implications for education, physical and mental health of young people, and broader social, economic and other activities in the society. As a fast-growing developing country, China provides a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of macro-level changing context on the development of individual social skills and emotional well-being. The advancement of theory and methodology in developmental science and social neuroscience now allows us to acquire a sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of the issues involving contextual factors and social and emotional functioning. The workshop will focus on intensive and extensive communication and discussion among international scholars, especially between senior scholars in the field and junior scholars from the region, on various theoretical and methodological issues in research and practice. Participants will be encouraged to discuss the issues from multilevel and multi-disciplinary perspectives. The Southeast University is one of the oldest institutes for high education in China. In the past decades, the University has become a comprehensive university comprising diverse colleges and departments of science, engineering, art, social science, law, economics, management, and languages. The Research Center for Learning Science (RCLS) of the university, with a key laboratory of the Ministry of Education of China for Child Development and Learning Science, is funded by the central government and focuses on scientific research on social competence and emotional functioning in childhood and preadolescence from a multi-level, inter-disciplinary perspective. With a strong background of science and technology, the RCLS has unique strengths in adopting and integrating the new concepts and the state-of-the-art methodologies from psychology, neuroscience, engineering, and education in the study of child development, family interactions and broader social experiences. A number of international conferences have been held successfully by this research center in the past several years such as the Forum on Learning Science, SINO-FRENCH Symposium on Science Education and International Forum on Children's Emotional Development and Competence.